Following two seasons of play as the Washington Football Team, after ditching the franchise’s longtime name due to its offensiveness to Native Americans and good taste, the WFT will unveil its new identity in February.
On 02/02/2022, the full rebranding of the WFT will be revealed, team president Jason Wright shared on the club’s website.
While there’s no way to know what the franchise’s new name and logo will be, it confirmed it won’t be a wolf-related title or look, per Wright. “Early on we understood Wolves — or some variation of it — was one of our fan favorites,” he wrote. “As I’ve said all along, we take feedback from our fans seriously, and because of your interest in this name, we put Wolves on a list of options to explore fully. Once we began looking into Wolves, however, we became aware of a notable challenge: trademarks held by other teams would limit our ability to make the name our own. And without Wolves, variations like RedWolves wouldn’t have been viable either for these and other reasons.”
According to Wright, the team will move forward with a new name free of “distracting obstacles, legal or otherwise.”
“While we’ve always understood it would be a nearly impossible task to select a name that all of our fans would identify with as their first pick, we are very excited about our final selection, which aligns with our values, carries forth our rich history, represents the region and, most importantly, is inspired and informed by you, our fans,” he wrote. “We are confident that this identity is one that our team and our fans across D.C., Maryland, Virginia and beyond can rally behind for another 90 years and more as we continue to cheer on the Burgundy & Gold in this next chapter.”
For the Athletic, Washington beat writer Ben Standig explains why it took almost 600 days for Washington to settle on a permanent team name. “The wait took this long — 18 months, 20 days — because that’s the usual amount of time required for leagues to clear any legal or logistical hurdles, not to mention the research and time needed for such an overhaul,” he writes. “Washington started from scratch because of owner Dan Snyder’s prior steadfast refusal to ever consider a change. One thing that’s not changing: the team colors. Burgundy and gold remain. Regardless of the past, Washington’s present will be reshaped — and renamed officially on the Wednesday after the NFC and AFC Championship Games, which also happens to be Groundhog Day.”
Anyone for Red Hogs?
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